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Facts on Foods That Speed Up Metabolism

Revving Your Engine

Metabolism is a process that breaks down carbohydrates, fats and proteins in the food you eat to make the energy your body needs to build and maintain itself. Proper nutrition keeps your body functioning well, but the right foods can also speed up your metabolism. The amount of calories you eat, your genes and the amount of calories that you burn while eating and exercising determine your metabolism. The body breaks down carbohydrates, then fats and finally proteins. The food that you eat makes up 5 to 10 percent of your metabolic rate.
Stocking Your Cupboard

Foods that speed up your metabolism are vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, fish, healthy fats and whole grains. Look for these vegetables when shopping: spinach, broccoli, carrots, asparagus, cabbage, beet roots, assorted beans and dark, leafy vegetables. Any type of fresh fruit is good for you, but try eating blueberries, melons, apples, citrus fruits and tomatoes. Skinless poultry and eggs are excellent sources of protein. The omega 3 fatty acids in fish boost your metabolism by burning up to 400 calories a day. The enzymes in your body that burn fat increase while those that store fat decrease. If you are not a fish eater, take omega 3 capsules that contain a minimum of 300 milligrams total of EPA and DHA. Eat healthy fats like nuts and peanut butter. Whole grains found in brown rice, cereal, barley and oats speed up your metabolism as well. Consume foods with B vitamins, magnesium and fiber to increase your metabolism.
Too Much of a Good Thing

Portion control is still important. Just because these foods are good for you doesn't mean that you can go overboard. Eat several small meals and healthy snacks throughout the day. A good habit to start is reading the Nutrition Facts Labels on food containers. These labels tell what a single serving size is and the nutrients found in that serving.
Losing While You Eat

Know the caloric content of the foods that you eat. Nutrition Facts Labels tell the number of calories in a serving also. There are negative calorie foods that burn more calories during digestion than the foods contain themselves. For most people, a healthy number of calories per day is between 2,200 and 2,800 depending on their sex and size.
Balance It Out

Eating the right foods to speed up your metabolism and supplement your diet by incorporating other good habits. Drink plenty of water during the day. Six to eight glasses is a good goal. Exercise at least three times a week. Use free weights to help stimulate your metabolism by building muscle tone.

Low Impact Aerobics for High Impact Results

Aerobics to Tone, Firm and Build Muscle

The term "aerobics " is often known as a series of rhythmic, large muscle exercises, usually done to music in a class led by an instructor. However, the term can also be used in a general sense as a cardiovascular workout that improves coordination, muscle strength, mobility, while promoting general well-being.

Health Benefits of Aerobics

Aerobics provides a whole host of health benefits, including but not limited to:

• Burning calories

• Reduction in body fat

• Improvement in bone density when used with weight resistance

• Reduction in stress

• General improvement in well-being

• Weight management

• Improvement aerobic fitness

• Improvement in coordination and balance

• Improvement in muscle shape and tone

• Improvement in muscular endurance and flexibility

• Improvement in muscular strength, posture and body performance

• Improves  sexual performance. In 2003, scientists at Harvard School of Public Health found that men who ran at least three hours each week reported sexual functioning like that of men two to five years younger

Aerobic exercise can also reduce the risks of many diseases and conditions, including but not limited to:

• Coronary artery disease. Heart disease is one of the top causes of death for men and women in the United States. If you've had a heart attack, achieving a higher level of aerobic fitness can help prevent a second attack and decrease your risk of dying from coronary artery disease.

• Reduction in risk to cardiac diseases by lowering blood pressure and slowing down atherosclerotic processes
• Improve blood fats. Aerobic exercise increases the concentration of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the "good" cholesterol) and decreases the concentration of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol) in your blood.
• Improves your immune system. People who exercise regularly are less susceptible to minor viral illnesses, such as colds and flu

• Hypertension (high blood pressure). If you have high blood pressure, aerobic exercise can help lower it.

• Stroke. Improving blood fats results in less build-up of plaques in your arteries. Deposits of plaques in blood vessels leading to your brain can result in a stroke.

• Osteoporosis.

• Cancers, including breast, colon, prostate and endometrial cancer.

• Obesity.

• Type 2 diabetes.Aerobic exercise helps you control your weight, reducing the likelihood of your being overweight or obese, conditions that can lead to type 2 diabetes.

• Insulin resistance disease. Aerobic exercise helps control blood sugar levels.

Aerobic exercise can also help manage chronic disease and conditions in the following ways:

• Strengthen the heart. A stronger heart can pump more blood for every heartbeat, which means your heart doesn't need to beat as fast during rest or exercise.

• Improve circulation. A stronger heart muscle pumps blood more efficiently.

• Relieve chronic muscle pain and fibromyalgia. Aerobic exercise stimulates the growth of tiny blood vessels (capillaries) in your muscles. This helps your body deliver oxygen to your muscles more efficiently and remove irritating metabolic waste products, such as lactic acid.

• Lower your blood sugar levels if you have diabetes. Keeping your blood sugar within target range can help you avoid long-term complications of diabetes, such as kidney failure or heart disease.

• Weight management. Combined with a healthy diet and appropriate strength training, aerobic exercise can help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

High Impact vs. Low Impact Aerobic Exercise

Many people suffer leg injuries from traditional aerobic workouts, often considered high impact aerobics. As knowledge about fitness increased many people seeking to increase their level of fitness and improve their shape have turned low-impact aerobic exercises.

High impact aerobic exercises such as simulated rope jumping or jumping jacks, so popular in regular aerobics, are a thing of the past. Low-impact aerobic exercise exclude exercises where both feet leave the ground. Newer fitness routines that are considered low impact aerobic exercise focus on exercises where one foot remains on the ground at all times.

Types of Low Impact Aerobic (Cardio) Exercise

Today there are many types of low impact cardio exercises being used at home, in gyms, and in many fitness centers across the world. To make up for the lack of jumping, many of these newer routines include forms of kick boxing, boxing, yoga or other forms of martial arts. To increase intensity many fitness professionals also incorporate weights into the aerobic (cardio) workout.

Low Impact Aerobic (Cardio) Exercise Intensity

Low impact aerobic exercise doesn’t mean low intensity. Many low impact aerobic exercises can burn more fat and more calories than the older traditional high impact aerobic (cardio) exercise routines. Today’s low impact aerobic (cardio) exercise routines can still challenge you, and build up the cardiovascular system.

Benefits of Low Impact Aerobic (Cardio) Exercise

Low-impact aerobics can improve your health by increasing cardiovascular fitness while minimizing lower-body injuries that can occur due to higher impact exercise. Higher impact exercises then to put stress on joints, tendons and ligaments resulting in increases incidence of overuse syndrome, as well as increased incidences of strains and sprains and joint injuries.

Potential Drawbacks of Low Impact Aerobic (Cardio) Exercise

• The problem with low-impact aerobics is that, depending on the level of the program, you may not be pushing the heart hard enough to derive any aerobic benefits. The optimum pulse range to achieve in an aerobic workout is your normal pulse plus 75 percent. In other words, if your pulse is normally 100 beats per minute, your rate during aerobic exercise should be around 175. This rate may be impossible to achieve during a low-impact workout. In fact, if you’re in good cardiovascular shape and then go on a low-impact program, you may be reducing your heart health, oxygen utilization, and energy reserve.

• Another potential drawback of the low-impact system is that for many of the weight exercises you have to strain and stretch your muscles just to maintain your balance. Since your feet are usually on the floor, this can overwork the muscles of the upper body.

• Low-impact exercisers suffer from tendinitis and even bursitis of the shoulders and arms. Many low-impact exercises are done on the floor standing erect and there is also a tendency toward ankle injuries.

Conclusion

Perhaps the best solution is to utilize low impact aerobic exercise with resistance (weight) training as a separate workout. Another solution would be to perhaps alternate low impact aerobic exercise with high impact aerobic exercise routines. This way the body gets a variety of different types of training, which has shown to maximize fitness gains, while also giving the muscle routine. As with all exercise, beginners should start slowly.  In regards to aerobic (cardio) exercise all beginners should start with a low-impact workout until their bodies become acclimated to aerobic (cardio) exercise. Once the muscles have been properly introduced to the wonders of aerobic exercise, it’s time to increase the intensity, whether it is by increase the time, increasing the pace, increasing the complexity of the routine, or whether it is by periodically incorporated a for the high-impact workout.

 

Exercise of the Week

  Exercise of the Week

Ball Transfer Crunch

1. Start by lying on your back with a stability ball held between your legs and your arms directly above your head.

2. Simultaneously raise your legs with the ball and your shoulders up towards the ceiling.

3. At the top grab the ball with your arms and return to the starting position with the ball in your hands.

4. Repeat this movement and transfer the ball back to your feet.
 
5. Repeat for the required repetitions.

How Insulin Plays a Major Roll in Helping To Burn Body Fat

 

Insulin encourages body fat storage, but it also helps create an anabolic environment for muscle growth.
What you want to do is to keep your insulin levels as low as possible during rest periods (when you're inactive) and elevated after training.
Why you want to do this | Low insulin levels at rest help burn fat as long as calories are controlled. Elevated levels around training time prevent muscle loss and support anabolism--muscle growth.
How you do this?   Keep carbs low most of the day--stress low-carb vegetables and lean protein sources, such as egg whites, poultry, fish, and lean beef. Before and after training, make sure you eat carbs along with proteins. A rule of thumb while dieting is to eat .2 grams (g) of carbs just prior to training and .3 g afterward per pound of bodyweight. For someone weighing 200 pounds that would be 40 g before and 60 g after training. This creates an anabolic state during times when the body is most open to using body fat as fuel during and after training.

Are You Doing the Wrong Type of Exercise to Lose Weight?

 

While exercise is a critical component of any fat loss program, you might be exercising incorrectly. This means that your particular goals require certain kinds of exercise, performed in certain amounts, at certain times. What you're currently doing might not be right for you. For example long, boring cardio on the treadmill is quickly being replaced with the far more effective "interval training" for reaching one's fat loss goals. Interval Training consists of working hard for a short period of time (i.e. a 100 yard sprint) and then resting before performing another short burst of intense exercise. Working out in this way boosts fat loss, increases the number of calories burned, improves cardiovascular fitness, decreases workout time, adds variety to your workouts and will likely be much more fun than many other workouts you have tried.
Time and time again, interval training has proven to be the fastest method for burning fat. It does not require any equipment, it shortens your workouts considerably and it is far less boring, and more effective, than walking on the treadmill for hours at a time. For ultimate fat loss, interval training is one of the most effective ways to burn fat, beyond what any other type of exercise can provide.
Obviously there are limitations to who should perform this type of exercise and if you are new to it, you will want to start slowly and talk with your physician before embarking on a more intense level of exercise.
Here is just one example of an interval type workout:
Perform 20 repetitions of dumbbell squats, followed by a 60 second rest, then perform 12 push-ups, followed by another 60 second rest and repeat this process three times.
So in other words, it would look like this:

• 20 squats, 60 second rest
• 12 push-ups, 60 second rest
• 20 squats, 60 second rest
• 12 push-ups, 60 second rest
• 20 squats, 60 second rest
• 12 push-ups, rest 90-120 seconds and perform the next two exercises

For the next super-set, you would perform 15-20 lunges with each leg, followed by 12 dumbbell rows (or pull-ups if you have a bar). You would these in the same fashion - lunges, followed by a 60 second rest, dumbbell rows, 60 second rest, etc.
After your last set, you could then take a short 3 minute rest and perform 3-5 sprint intervals - run as fast as you can for approximately 60 seconds, then walk at a semi-brisk pace for approximately 2 minutes before performing your next sprint.
That is a great workout that will help many people lose fat rapidly.

How to have more Energy

How to have more Energy

July 9, 2009 by Fred Christy

‘How to have more Energy’ is an article from Dr. John Demartini’s July newsletter. Enjoy…

What are the most common causes of feeling flat and lethargic?

Distraction and lack of direction in life: Often people carry around so many tasks in their mind that they think they have to do, should have done, could do etc. The mental energy expended just thinking about this never ending to do list can leave you feeling drained, lethargic and completely overwhelmed. In today’s fast paced world it is essential we learn how to delegate and not try to take responsibility for everything. I suggest putting this imaginary list on paper, reviewing it and then separate what only you can do from what you know you can give to someone else to do. Once you have done this you will not feel as overwhelmed and immediately more motivated.

To paraphrase David Thoreau, most people are living quiet lives of desperation, not invigorating lives of inspiration. They are not doing what they love nor loving what they do. They aren’t grateful so they are putting on the brakes in life and lacking the energy and vitality to live. The body and mind are inseparable in their interactions. We need to be accountable for how our psychology may be affecting our overall health.

Are there any simple solutions?

1. Know where you are going. Your energy soars when you are clear on your aim and direction in life. When your heart and soul are guiding you, energy abounds.
2. Delegate low priority actions to those more suited and inspired to do them.
3. Be Thankful. When you are grateful for all that you have rather than dwelling on all that you are lacking, you will discover a very powerful source of energy. Count your blessings daily (Read my earlier book Count Your Blessings – The Healing Power of Gratitude and Love for more insights on the importance of gratitude).
4. Eat Moderately – Many people try to perk themselves up by pigging out but this is definitely not the way to do it. It has actually been shown that if you eat less you have an increase in vitality and overall energy. Biological research also shows people who eat less live longer. Walk away from the table a little less full and you will have a lot more spark to do the things you want to do.
5. Eat wholesome nutritious foods – become aware of what you eat. Be sure to “eat to live” not “live to eat”.
6. Drink Water – lots.
7. Breathe fully and deeply – Use your diaphragm.
8. Connect your vocation with your vacation. If you aren’t doing what you love and loving what you do you have the brake on all the time.
9. Smile. Smiling can change your physiology and make you look up at life.